Journey Ends
by EchelonPrime9
Summary: A little angsty tidbit involving Jazz and Prowl/Barricade Jazz/Prowl within Transformers belongs to Hasbro, as usual.


_Just a one-shot I wrote way back when._

 _As for other stories that I gotta update, Recovery is almost done and Till All Are Gone may be a while yet. I am very very sorry about that guys!_

 _Anyways, enjoy this tidbit._

_  
Creeping through the shadows, silent as the night itself, an Autobot saboteur tracked his victim.  
Said victim happened to be a police car, cruising down the empty road.  
"To punish and enslave" adorned it's black and white finish.  
Jazz remembered a time when it said "To serve and protect."  
Memories threatened to drown his processor, but the saboteur locked them away with iron willpower.  
There was no time for that now.  
He tracked the police car to an abandoned warehouse, careful to stay out of sight and out of earshot, he watched the mech disappear inside.  
He followed.  
"Ah suspect yeh know why ah'm here." Jazz's visor glinted blue in the darkness of the warehouse. Old boxes were stacked everywhere, and shafts of moonlight filtered through the grimy, cracked windows.  
Barricade spun around nonchalantly, his optics a blaring crimson red.  
Jazz's vents hitched as his optics travelled over those same handsome features.  
Only the optics were different.  
He remembered a time when they were blue.  
"Finally. Did Prime _finally_ give the order to kill me?" Barricade growled, optics flashing, "Did the mighty Optimus Prime finally order you to hunt me down and slay me? The precious little second in command gone Decepticon?"  
"Ah came ah mah own accord." Jazz stepped forward, an energon dagger (pulled from his subspace) brandished in his right servo.  
Barricade wandered closer, grinning menacingly and reaching forward to caress Jazz's faceplates roughly with a single clawed thumb.  
Jazz slapped him away, "Don't yeh touch meh! Only _Prowl_ can touch meh."  
"But I _am_ Prowl." Barricade cooed, and for a single instant, Jazz believed him.  
Prowl, the mech who was his mate.  
Prowl, the mech he loved with his entire spark.  
"No yer not!" The saboteur shouted.  
And the instant was over, and Prowl had morphed into the monster that stood before him once again.  
Barricade, who used to be Prowl.  
Barricade, whom he'd come to kill.  
He lunged forward, swiping the dagger for an across-the-neck-cables wound.  
Barricade dodged it easily and backhanded Jazz, sending the head of special ops flying, the dagger spinning from his servo.  
"You really should've come prepared." Barricade scolded, like a creator would their sparkling. He stalked towards Jazz, a gun in his servo, "An _energon dagger?_ You're losing your touch!"  
Jazz dove for the dagger, managing to seize it, roll, and be back on his pedes before the Decepticon warrior could fire a single bullet.  
"Ah'm still as feisty as ever, Prowler." The nickname he used to call Prowl slipped out before he could stop it.  
Barricade froze, his doorwings stiffening. "Do not call me that." He said evenly. His tone was deceptively calm. But Jazz saw the rage in his optics.  
He slid into a smooth battle crouch, graceful as an earth feline.  
Barricade wasted no time. Screaming out a battle cry, the black and white mech transformed, tires squealing against the cracked concrete as he raced towards Jazz.  
At the last possible moment, the Autobot saboteur sprung, catapulting himself into a flip over Barricade and landing on his pedes with a small hop.  
Barricade emitted a notice of utter outrage and transformed back to bipedal mode, charging Jazz once again, bullets flying.  
Then began a deadly dance between the two, neither gaining the advantage over the other.  
Prowl may have been Barricade, but he had in no way lost any of his skills as a soldier. He matched Jazz in combat, knowing his tactics after many years of sparring against each other during their free time.  
But Jazz had learned a few things since then.  
He grabbed hold of the gun, twisting and kicking Barricade sharply underneath the chinguard. The momentum knocked the Decepticon away from him, and leaving Jazz with the gun. The saboteur tossed it aside.  
Fury darkened Barricade's features. He lunged again, but Jazz was ready.  
Jazz lowered the dagger, then thrust it upward, sliding it smoothly up and under Barricade's chest armour.  
Barricade cried out, slumping heavily onto Jazz as energon gushed heavily from the wound, staining the dagger and Jazz's finish a bright, glowing blue.  
Jazz withdrew the dagger, throwing it aside viciously. He gripped Barricade's waist and shoulders and lowered the Decepticon carefully to the ground.  
Barricade was venting heavily, clutching at his wound. Tears had gathered in his optics.  
Who ever thought that Barricade, the SIC turned Decepticon, had a paralyzing fear of dying?  
Jazz cradled Barricade's helm gently in his servos, kneeling beside him and touching their helms together.  
Tears dripped from underneath his visor and spattered onto Barricade's nasal ridge.  
"Ah-ah'm sorry, Prowler." He shuttered his optics. After a few moments he felt a shaky servo cover his own.  
"J...Jazz..."  
"Barricade." Jazz in shuttered his optics.  
The Decepticon had a small smile on his faceplates. He shook his helm faintly, optics dimming, "Prowl." He took a shaky vent, his systems struggling and rattling as they fought to keep him online. His other servo came up to tenderly cup Jazz's faceplates.  
His touch held none of Barricade's malice. Instead, it felt like.. Like _Prowl's_ touch. The way he used to touch Jazz, back- way back- before he defected.  
"I... Forgive.. You." He whispered, optics dimming further.  
Jazz's vents hitched, and before the dying mech in his arms could say anything else he brought their lips together for one last kiss.  
He didn't break away even when Prowl's servos slackened and fell away, the police car growing too weak to hold them up anymore.  
He only broke away when Prowl's vents stopped completely.  
He held him for a long time after that.


End file.
